The John Waters Collection Doesn’t Hate You, but Contemporary Art Still Might
Art / Camp / Filthy Dreams On Location / Trash

The John Waters Collection Doesn’t Hate You, but Contemporary Art Still Might

Someone was taking a dump in The John Waters Restrooms at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Was it an art-inspired intestinal emergency or a dedicated tribute to the filmmaker whose major public stink involved Divine sampling some doggy-doo in the filthy finale of Pink Flamingos? Or perhaps, this intrepid museum-goer previously devoured John’s chapter “Act … Continue reading

“Pearl” Is the Maniacal Somewhere Over the Rainbow-Yearning (Anti-)Heroine We’ve Been Waiting For
Camp / Film

“Pearl” Is the Maniacal Somewhere Over the Rainbow-Yearning (Anti-)Heroine We’ve Been Waiting For

“I’M A STAR!” Mia Goth’s psychotic stardom-reaching farmer’s daughter Pearl bends at the waist in her scarlet red version of Margaret Hamilton’s nefarious cyclist Almira Gulch’s high-collared dress in The Wizard of Oz and howls that line from the depths of her soul. Pearl has just attempted a rousing half-imagined bomb-strewn trenches boogie, a kind … Continue reading

Montreal’s “Barbie Expo” is Kitsch Heaven: A (Mostly) Photo Essay
Camp / Filthy Dreams On Location / Trash

Montreal’s “Barbie Expo” is Kitsch Heaven: A (Mostly) Photo Essay

“I just want to be perfect,” says Karen Carpenter in the recording studio, played by a Barbie doll fashioned by director Todd Haynes in, what I would argue, is still his best film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. Thanks to Haynes’s deranged casting choice, Barbie is a flawless proxy for Karen Carpenter, the wholesome clear-voiced … Continue reading

Welcome Back to the Pleasure Dome: “After Blue (Paradis sale)” Resurrects the Filthy Delights of Camp Artifice
Camp / Decadence / Film

Welcome Back to the Pleasure Dome: “After Blue (Paradis sale)” Resurrects the Filthy Delights of Camp Artifice

Are you sick to death of sleek cinema? An overbearing aesthetic that has trickled down so far that even the most whacko experimental films and unhinged underground movies strive to achieve a similar spotless surface perfection as those boring big-budget Hollywood films? Blech! Give me the awkward, the uncanny, the janky, the shonky, the half-baked, … Continue reading

Trump’s New 45 Wine & Whiskey Is the Best Bar for Considering the End of America
America Is Doomed / Camp / Filthy Dreams On Location / Trash

Trump’s New 45 Wine & Whiskey Is the Best Bar for Considering the End of America

“Watch the wire.” That’s what I was warned as I maneuvered my way around marble-topped tables and White House gewgaws at the new 45 Wine & Whiskey Bar, a Trump-themed Trump bar at Trump Tower on a recent Friday night, trying to reach two plush high-backed dusty magenta chairs that wouldn’t look out of place … Continue reading

6 Videos To Watch While Waiting For The Second Coming of JFK Jr. This Thanksgiving
Camp / Film

6 Videos To Watch While Waiting For The Second Coming of JFK Jr. This Thanksgiving

Why hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams gobblers! What’s that? You’re excited for the second annual pandemic Thanksgiving?! Well, who isn’t, my little stuffed turklets! When Filthy Dreams was originally conceived as a camp twist on the idea of Nietzsche’s eternal return—a show happening on the hour every hour—a decade ago, we never quite realized how … Continue reading

Diana-rama!: Why Does Princess Di Inspire Such Schlock (And Why Do I Love It So)?
Camp / Film / Trash

Diana-rama!: Why Does Princess Di Inspire Such Schlock (And Why Do I Love It So)?

In the latter half of the year of our Lord—or really Lady—2021, I decided to become a Princess Diana obsessive. That’s right, send me all your purple Princess Diana Beanie Babies that you’ve been squirreling away under your beds since the late 1990s just in case they finally become worth more than NFTs. I’m now … Continue reading